The Concertina Museum Collection Ref:C-116.

Item Type: Concertina

Summary

Full Description:C Wheatstone No 948948-Key English system, No 9515, with the
original "By Her Majesty's.." Conduit Street Label. Another appearance
in the Collection's Wheatstones of the late-1850s highly decorative,
gilt-embossed bellows and straps, brass-inlaid design. 48 Nickel-columned,
solid silver capped keys, (some missing) with a first appearance of
silver-plated finger-rests. Machine-cut rosewood frets, some damage to RH,
with a white chamois leather sub-fret baffle. The ends are inlaid with
scrolled brass inlays to the corners, and with worn gilt-embossed leather on
the bellows-frames. The original bellows papers are overlaid with plain dark
green papers, and Round-ended brass reed-frames have brass tongues. The large
annular pan-label bears the Wheatstone & Co Conduit Street address.

Concertina Summary:C Wheatstone No 9489 - a 48-Key English system, No 9489, with the original "By Her Majesty's.." Conduit Street Label. Another early appearance in the Collection's Wheatstones of the mid-1850s highly decorative, gilt-embossed, brass-inlaid design. and exhibiting rosewood frets, now machine-cut.The reeds are in standard round-ended brass reed-frames, and there is a large annular pan-label bearing Wheatstone & Co's address.

Maker Details

Wheatstone & Co. were founded in 1824, and survived until 1974. In 1975 the company was refounded by Steve Dickinson.

C. Wheatstone & Co was established in London, England by Charles Wheatstone (uncle to Sir Charles and William Dolman Wheatstone) at the beginning of the 19th Century. They moved to 20 Conduit Street, London, England in 1824. After the death of William in 1862, the firm was taken over by Edward Chidley, a distant relation. Edward Chidley died in 1899, and the firm was then controlled by his sons Edward and Percy. In 1905 the firm moved to 15 West Street.

After the death of the younger Edward Chidley in 1943, part of the firm was sold to Besson & Co., who were taken over by Boosey & Hawkes in 1948. In 1958 they moved to Duncan Terrace, Islington, North London. In 1961 the Duncan Terrace property was sold, and the remains of Wheatstone & Co. were moved to the Boosey & Hawkes factory in Edgware, Middlesex. The company ceased trading on the death of its last employee in 1974.